This specification relates to displaying content on content presentation devices.
User devices, for example, desktop and laptop computers, cellular phones, and electronic book readers use displays to present content, for example, text, to users. Devices with large displays, such as desktop computers, often display many lines of text that span long horizontal distances. When reading this text, a user must track, e.g., with his or her eyes, a long distance from the end of one line of text to the beginning of the next line of text. As a result, a user may make mistakes as he or she transitions between lines. That is, after reaching the end of line N, the user may erroneously continue reading on a line other than line N+1 (e.g., N or N+2) because of the difficulty in accurately identifying the proper line (line N+1). Such transitional mistakes cost the user time and distract his or her focus. For example, some users will focus on identifying the correct line of text to the detriment of the user's focus on the content of the text. As another example, some users will repeatedly re-read portions of the text rather than transitioning to the next line.
While smaller devices, such as small-screen laptops, tablets, netbooks, electronic book readers, and cellular phones, generally have smaller displays than desktop computers, users can still make transitional mistakes when reading text on these smaller devices. Although the horizontal tracking distance is often shorter on smaller devices than on larger devices, the text size is typically smaller and the lines of text are often more vertically compressed. This can increase the risk of transitional mistakes. Environmental factors can also make reading on smaller, portable, devices difficult. Users commonly read on these devices while moving, e.g., while walking or riding in a train or car. Under these circumstances, the device and the user are both being jostled. This movement can further decrease a user's ability to accurately and quickly transition from one line to the next.
Although devices may allow users to adjust the width of the text window or adjust the size of the text, such adjustments decrease the amount of text that can be displayed on the screen and force the user to more frequently scroll or electronically flip through pages. This increases the time it takes for a user to read the content, and can also adversely affect the battery and processor of the device.
There are several existing text formatting techniques that assist readers in performing certain tasks; however, these techniques do not help the reader quickly and accurately transition between lines of text. One existing text formatting technique formats lines of text in a way that helps users distinguish between lines. For example, some web pages alternate the background color of lines of text. This type of formatting, however, mainly serves to help users track long distances across the same line. For example, such formatting may be used in tables as a way of visually distinguishing one row of data from the next, assisting the user in correlating an entry in the far left column of the row with a related entry in the far right column of the same row. This formatting accordingly does not assist users in quickly, accurately, and naturally transitioning from one line of text to the next. Indeed, this type of formatting can actually impede a user's ability to transition between lines of text because there is an abrupt disconnect between the appearance of the end of one line of text and the appearance of the beginning of the next line of text.
A second text formatting technique uses formatting to call the reader's attention to a particular section of text. For example, an important word or phrase might be formatted in bold, italics, or underline. This kind of formatting, however, does not assist users in quickly and accurately transitioning between lines of text. Instead, it simply calls the user's attention to the uniquely-formatted section of text.
A third text formatting technique formats words based on their position or function, for example, in a sentence or in a computer programming command. For example, Apple's Script Editor program, available from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif., uses different colors to indicate the syntactic position, or part of speech, of words displayed on a screen. Although this formatting function may help users understand the structure of a sentence or computer program, it does not assist the user in transitioning between lines.